THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Tuesday, June 23, 1942. THE MIDDLE EAST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24949, 23 June 1942, Page 2

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Tuesday, June 23, 1942. THE MIDDLE EAST

As has been remarked in the press at Home, the fall of Tobruk to Marshal Rommel's forces is the culmination of a series of reverses in the Western Desert which few British people could have anticipated. It seems futile to debate at this stage whether or not they have been misled over the Libyan operations.. There is no information upon which an accurate judgment might be formed, and perhaps the most that can be said is that there has been a characteristic tendency in official quarters in London to interpret the news of Rommel's recent successes at less than its face value. It may be argued that, up to a point, the public mind had been, prepared for hard tidings from the Tobruk triangle. But the emphasis was placed on the capacity of the fortress to continue its valiant defiance of Rommel's superior strength, even when its isolation had been completed by the German strategist's skilful dispositions, rather than on his ability to bring such heavy pressure to bear in quick time as would make effective resistance impossible. Whatever may have been the intent behind the guarded communiques of the past few days—presumably it was hoped to the last in London that the Tobruk drama would have a more satisfactory sequel—the fact remains that Rommel could not be prevented from bringing off a masterstroke of concentrated assault, with the result that Tobruk, a rich prize in prisoners and equipment apart altogether from its positional importance in the desert struggle, fell into his hands in the matter of hours. Through successive periods of give-and-take in Libya the fortress had stood as a landmark of high endeavour, a continual thorn in the enemy's side. More than one garrison had experience of its perilous isolation in indomitable' performance of an allotted task. Now that phase is over, although not forgotten, and the Eighth Army is forced back again to the Egyptian frontier, substantially where it awaited General Wavell's first spectacular initiative two years ago. The threat to Egypt and the Suez has again become a grim reality. With Tobruk in his grasp, Rommel will find his problems of reinforcement via the Sicilian Narrows correspondingly eased. The strength that he now commands, in manpower and machines, is revealing of the extent to which he has already been able to defy Allied-attempts to wrest control of the Western Mediterranean from the Axis. The possibility advanced by Major Oliver Stewart last week has to be faced —that by using land-based planes from Sicily, Crete, and North Africa the enemy may-succeed still further in confining British sea forces in the eastern pocket of the Middle Sea. Whether Rommel will delay launching an all-out offensive against Egypt or go forward at once to challenge General Ritchie's forces remains to be seen. His present favourable position cannot havebeen won without heavy sacrifices, and he may be compelled to replenish his own resources before attempting to advance the African claw of the Axis pincers nearer to the Nile.

On the Russian front, in the Kharkov sector and at Sebastopol, the Germans are making desperate efforts to win successes complementary to that scored by Rommel at Tobruk. The heroic defenders of Sebastopol are still holding on grimly, but it does not appear that they can stand much longer the ordeal of Unending assault. If Sebastopol falls, it must be assumed that the Germans will immediately intensify their efforts to break through into the Caucasus via Rostov, from Kerch, or possibly by sea-borne invasion across the Black Sea. The last-mentioned manoeuvre would be hazardous, with the Russian Black Sea fleet still in existence and able to base itself on Novorossisk or Batum. But it is the German practice to take large risks, and there is no reason to doubt that enormous • resources in all arms would be flung into an undertaking so critical as this. The Axis plan for a junction of forces in Iran or the lower part of the Caucasian isthmus has not undergone any modification, and the Allies are doubtless as well prepared as is practicable, having regard for their perplexing problems of supply by long sea and land routes, to meet that emergency. The main lines of Axis strategy for the Middle East merge in the area dominated on the one hand by Suez and the Red Sea and on the other by the oilfields of Persia. The struggle for mastery that is impending will severely test the Allied powers of endurance, both in the Mediterranean and on the land fronts that impinge on that sea and stretch from it to the Persian Gulf and the Caspian.